No one is more passionate and excited about Chicago PD Season 12 than showrunner Gwen Sigan.
TV Fanatic was honored to chat with her via Zoom about what’s coming next season.
Season 12 feels like a soft reboot of “Chicago PD,” and she can’t wait to share a lot of details about the show’s next season.
Sigen’s passion for the subject matter is evident as she attempts to cover everything from new cast members to fresh storylines that are beloved by fans.
Check out our interview below and share your thoughts!
How Chicago PD stays fresh after 11 seasons
So, this season sounds like a soft restart. After 11 seasons, what strategies have you adopted to keep it fresh?
Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting, right? Already 11 seasons in, you wonder, “What else can we do?”
We quickly realized in the room that there were many aspects of our characters that we had yet to explore. That’s where we end up leaning.
This year, our season theme is Crisis of Self and Identity. So we’re looking at who these people are and what aspects they haven’t explored yet.
What aspects of them have been dormant for some time? Or what would really surprise them? Who can come into their lives and surprise them?
Or will we see something happen that triggers a different form of transformation in them? It’s fun to write with the desire to surprise yourself and the challenge of “What haven’t we done yet?”
What would be fun and what would surprise our actors? Do you know? That’s an exciting way to look at it. The addition of all these new characters has been really helpful for us.
You see these different dynamics and relationships taking shape. It takes everything in a different direction, which is really nice.
Newcomer Kiana brings a never-before-seen breath of fresh air to the Chicago Police Department
Yes. Of course, you’re going to reintroduce Patrol, which everyone is probably excited about. So, we have Kiana, but will she have a partner? Typically, there is a partner component.
Yeah yeah.
If there are more patrols, does that mean more Trudy time? How will it work?
Correct. This is very interesting. You’ll see how we play out Kiana’s story. She comes in as a patrol officer, but won’t be a patrol officer forever.
We’re going to go see some rides with her. But when we meet her, yes, she’s a patrol officer. Her background is in patrol, which she has been with for about three years. But she also has tactical experience.
She works on the tactical team and her background and experience will be a huge asset to us. She was also very active – an active police officer.
She likes to be the first on the scene, the first to hit the ground, the first through the door.
I think she was excited to see the intelligence community and see how we work and almost fall in love with it and that side of policing, which is much longer. You’ve been in it for a while and then you get to stick around and see how it all ends.
So, we get to go on this journey with her and see her really fall in love with the different aspects of being a police officer.
The addition of Sean Hatosy lifts the lid on the notoriously mysterious Voight
This all sounds exciting!
Yes! Thanks.
Of course, the casting is incredible. you have this Sean Hatosy this season.
Yes, yes!
That’s huge! So please tell me, how did you find him? This one is always fully booked and busy. What can we expect from his character?
We are very grateful that he said yes. He was our first choice and surprisingly, he agreed to do it. He’s such a good actor, man. He’s so versatile and that’s exactly what we were looking for.
He plays a character that’s a bit like Voight. That’s pretty much how we see him.
You see different sides of him throughout the season. But this guy comes in with a bit of a mystery. We don’t know much about him, which is rare for Voight.
Often, Voight has access to a lot of information through his little secret channels. But this guy, he’s not like that.
He’s going to join the police force as the deputy chief of OCD, so he’s Voight’s boss. We soon discover that he shares many of the same police philosophies as Voight.
He enjoys being on the streets with his troops, learning what’s going on, and providing resources to his officers. Of course, he is also a human being. [Laughs]
He has a complicated backstory. As we learn more about him, we’ll see how he’s different from Voight and how he’s similar to Voight.
It’s a great way to look at Voight’s identity within the context of his new relationship with Reed.
We’ll get that with Chapman this season, too.
Yes!
It sounds like Voight is going to drain his team.
Yes! [Laughs]
Can you talk about the Voight/Chapman dynamic and how that plays out?
Yes. we love sara [Bues]Plays Chapman. She’s a great actress.
She and Jason have great chemistry together. I think she does represent another adult – a true peer, like another person in the room with him who is not under his supervision. He’s not her boss, so that allows for a different dynamic.
This allowed her to be very honest and open with him. She was very direct with him, which was nice. I think that’s what he respected about her: She would call him out on it.
She would tell him: “You need to slow down. You are depleting your team. They have a very good kinship.
We’ll see this relationship deepen throughout the season, and there will also be some changes in the relationship. This is another way for us to explore Voight, understand who he is and why he is the way he is.
You know, like there’s a definite – he likes that most of his relationships are with people in his unit and he’s their boss. This is a boundary. But for Chapman, she reminded him, “That’s not me.”
Chicago Police Department honors Hailey Upton as it turns over a new leaf
With Haley and Halstead gone, how difficult is it to honor past fan favorites while also bringing in and creating new potential fan favorites?
It’s so fun when characters leave the show because you obviously want to do your best to honor them.
However, I think you can never fully engage an audience because none of us want them to leave. We hope they stay on the show forever.
In my dreams, they keep coming back. But you have to find a way that feels right but also maintains the show and keeps it going, you know?
I’m very proud of what we were able to do with Tracy’s character. She leaves in a hopeful way that allows us to view the event in an almost positive light.
She’s moved on, but I’d like to believe the characters still stay connected. We don’t see it on screen, but Burgess and Ruzek are calling her. Atwater called her and asked about the situation.
She’s still there and a part of their lives, and that’s helpful because it allows us as storytellers to think, “How can we have fun with this now? How can we get new people here to bring something different?” Something and shake up the people we have?
So that’s the way we’ve been trying to look at it, because, you know, we loved her and this is a huge loss for us.
Brzek is both united and independent, facing different family dynamics
We have great weddings in Brzek that everyone can be excited about. But what other storylines can you tease for Ruzek, Burgess, Atwater and Torres, both personally and professionally?
There are a lot of interesting things going on. With Burgess and Ruzek, we really wanted to look at things like, “Okay, we know they’re a unit, right?”
Their relationship is in a good place and heading towards this exciting wedding, almost like a married couple.
How do we allow them to both have rich, independent lives and maintain them so that they can be each other’s backbone and foundation when things go wrong?
We’re going to look at them as a unit and a family, especially with someone like Makayla.
But we also see a lot of things going on in their lives independently.
We’ll take a look at what’s going on with Burgess; she’s got a lot going on in her work life, with her ambition, and putting it all together and figuring out what kind of police officer she wants to be and being tested in different ways .
The second episode has a very strong Ruzek style, and some things that happened really shocked and surprised him. We’re going to see how he handles this and see where it leaves behind.
We also get to see some of his different family dynamics and family members, what might be going on in their lives, and in all of our lives, and how they come back together.
Atwater’s personal growth may lead to love
Then Atwater had a great one.
Episode three is an Atwater episode.
Last season, we spoke very emotionally about what happened to Atwater, who was asked from an early age to be a provider, a caregiver, and an extremely responsible person. But there is a certain level of burnout and mental fatigue.
We made that clear, but we never gave him a solution.
This season, he’s going to find a solution, and we’re going to tell that story through a new character who he meets and develops a very interesting relationship with the love interest that we see.
It made him see a slightly different perspective and wonder if there was a way to have it all and maybe live a slightly different life.
So, yeah, it’s been really fun and it’s been a good thing and a new dynamic for him.
Chicago PD will air Wednesday, September 25 at 10/9c on NBC with all-new episodes.
You can watch the show on Peacock.
